Poliquin: Here's a reader with a question for Jim Boeheim, the Syracuse University basketball coach

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Do you have a question that you’d like to ask of a Central New York coach or administrator, manager or assistant, athletic director or owner? Well, consider me your conduit to Jim Boeheim or Scott Shafer or John Desko or Jon Cooper or Tony Beasley . . . or any of their assistants (or bosses) . . . or any of our local college and high-school coaches (men or women).

Send your question dealing with your interests in the local high-school, college or professional landscape to bpoliquin@hotmail.com, and I’ll do my best to present it to the subject of your choice and provide his or her answer right here in this space on Tuesdays at 12 noon.

Please do include your name and the identity of your hometown. If the circumstances of your question demand anonymity, I will withhold that information upon your request.

Today’s question? It was asked of Jim Boeheim, the Syracuse University basketball coach and inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Here goes . . .

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QUESTION:I would like to know why you don't utilize the bounce pass more. I watch the soft lobbed entrance passes that get intercepted and think bounce passes would accomplish the same thing and be harder to intercept.

Way back when I played, we were taught to use the bounce pass whenever possible and practiced it a lot. I can see four or five turnovers a game being eliminated this way.

Of course, I’m talking about back in the late ’50s and early ’60s when, at 6-foot-1, I never met a taller player until I got in college. How times have changed.-- Jack Thompson
Binghamton, N.Y.

ANSWER (as provided by Jim Boeheim): “I didn’t know that anything happened to the bounce pass. Is it dead? Did it pass away? This is not a question I’d necessarily expect.

"But I can say this: There’s more dribbling in the game than there used to be. More offensive movements are designed to use dribbling. So I think there’s less passing than there used to be. So, therefore, there are fewer bounce passes.

“Now, I think if you’re talking about an entry pass into the post, it could be true what you’re saying about the bounce pass. But with us, we don’t go to the post that much. There’s just less post offense than there used to be. There aren’t as many big guys so there’s not as much post offense as there used to be. But I think on an entry pass into the post, I think you’re right: The bounce pass is probably the best pass.

“I think that’s about the only answer I can come up with.”

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Here is the weekly “schedule of events” in Bud Poliquin’s corner of syracuse.com:

MONDAY -- By 8 a.m.: The daily column/commentary. By 11:30 a.m.: “How’d I Do?” By 6 p.m.: “Ask Me Anything” by submitting questions (to which I’ll give answers) on any sports-related topic to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. (Please include name and hometown.)

TUESDAY -- By 8 a.m.: The daily column/commentary. By 11:30 a.m.: “Coach’s Corner,” wherein readers can submit questions to any coach at any level in Central New York (and answers will be posted) to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. (Please include name and hometown.) By 6 p.m.: “The Video Store.”

WEDNESDAY -- By 8 a.m.: The daily column/commentary. By 11:30 a.m.: “The List.” By 6 p.m.: “E-Mail Of The Week,” wherein readers can submit legitimate essays/open letters/observations for purposes of posting to bpoliquin@syracuse.com. (Please include name and hometown.)